Category: Review

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Adagio Teas’s Motherhood Teas (Collection)

Motherhood Teas by Adagio Teas
Black Tea, Green Tea, White Tea, Honeybush, Tisane / Flavoured
$24.00USD for 6 0.5oz tins

Adagio Teas has provided me with Motherhood Teas for the purposes of writing an honest review.

First Impressions

Motherhood Teas is a super sweet little set of six limited edition blends designed for moms and the mother figures in your lives. The adorably illustrated tins slide open and are jam-packed with the tea/tisane inside. The tins neatly fit into a dark pink box and it’s basically already packaged up for you to gift to your mom (and Mother’s Day is coming up, so you best go and order now if you haven’t already gotten your mom a present!).

Each tin is adorable – there’s Love, Admiration, Hug, Hero, Wisdom and Truth.

From left to right: Hug, Admiration, and Love.

Love has a slight rose aroma, I can also smell the black tea base and it has some vanilla notes. Love consists of: black tea, heart sprinkles, rose petals, rose flavor, and natural creme flavor.

Admiration is a honeybush blend, but it does have some rooibos qualities to it and I can definitely smell that medicinal quality behind it. There’s a nuttiness in the background though, which I find intriguing. Admiration consists of: honeybush, flower sprinkles, cocoa nibs, natural hazelnut flavor, and natural chocolate flavor

Hug has a lovely aroma – lemongrass, berries, roses and ginger are all mingling in there. Hug consists of: rose hips, hibiscus, apple pieces, rose petals, blue cornflowers, lemon grass, natural creme flavor, licorice root, blueberries, strawberries, raspberry leaves, natural strawberry flavor, natural blueberry flavor, raspberries, ginger root, natural blackberry flavor, peppermint leaves, safflower, and blue cornflowers.

From left to right: Trust, Wisdom, and Hero.

Hero has the cutest tin, by far! This green tea blend smells grassy, floral, and has some lovely vanilla notes to it. Hero consists of: green tea, hibiscus, confetti sprinkles, natural vanilla flavor, orange peels, natural bergamot flavor, and blue cornflowers.

Wisdom is a white tea blend – I can smell vanilla and chocolate, I don’t really smell the white tea base or the coconut that exists in here, but bonus because I can’t smell the rooibos either. Wisdom consists of: white tea, rooibos, apple pieces, white chocolate chips, hibiscus, blueberries, natural strawberry flavor, strawberries, blue cornflowers, coconuts, rose petals, and natural vanilla flavor.

Last, but certainly not least, is Trust. Trust smells like apricots, vanilla, and cream to me. This green tea blend consists of: green tea, butterfly sprinkles, lavender, vanilla pieces, apple pieces, natural apricot flavor, strawberry pieces, apricots, and marigold.

Preparation

Adagio Teas recommends steeping Love, Admiration and Hug in 100°C (212°F) water for 3 minutes (Love) and 5-10 minutes (Admiration and Hug). I followed the steeping instructions and did 3, 5 and 5 minutes.

For Hero, Wisdom, and Trust, Adagio Teas recommends steeping in 82°C (180°F) for 2-3 minutes (Hero), 3-5 minutes (Wisdom), and 2-3 minutes (Trust). I used 80C (175F) water to steep these three and did the initial steeps for 3, 5 and 5 minutes.

First Taste

Left to right: Love, Admiration, and Hug.

Love steeps to a golden brown colour. I found the aroma to be very similar to the dry leaf – I get the rose, vanilla and black tea base. The flavour is pretty good, I found it to be sweet with some light floral notes without being over the top perfume. It’s pleasant and I think it’d be great with cream and sugar, or paired with an afternoon tea.

Admiration tastes like rooibos, which is never my favourite ingredient. I found it to have some light chocolate flavours with a honeyed sweetness. I do like the sweet part of this tisane, and I think fans of rooibos and honeybush would enjoy this one.

Hug has a really strong lemongrass and ginger aroma and flavour to it. It steeps to a lovely yellow-brown colour. There’s some nice warming qualities about it that I think are really enjoyable and would be nice for busy moms who want something to drink while unwinding after a long day of balancing working from home and home schooling.

Left to right: Hero, Wisdom, and Trust.

Hero has a great aroma to it – it steeps to a peachy yellow, which was surprisingly not pink despite the fact that hibiscus is in the blend. There’s some grassy and vanilla notes to Hero. I found the flavour to be grassy, with hints of vanilla and a nice creamy quality to it. It’s quite light enough that I think it’d be nice as an iced tea too – since if you’re a hero, you’re a hero throughout the year and that includes different seasons.

Wisdom steeps to a golden orange with some oils floating on top – I think it’s from either the chocolate or coconut (or both). I still can’t taste the coconut. It has some nice vanilla and chocolate notes to it. I found it to be smooth, with a lovely texture despite the oils floating on top (it doesn’t taste heavy at all). It’s sweet too, and reminds me of a dessert. I think this one means to be paired with some strawberry shortcake or a freshly baked scone with strawberry preserves.

Trust steeps to a light yellow – I love the colour. It smells like apricot and vanilla. There’s a very pleasant sweetness to this that I enjoy. I found it to be light and pleasant – the apricot flavour is the best. I think this one would be a great iced as well, as it’s just got that lightness to it that goes well with iced teas.

A Second Cup?

I found that Hero, Wisdom, and Trust resteeped the best (for one resteep). A lot of the added flavourings were missing in the second steep of the same leaves.

Left to right: Love, Admiration, and Hug.

For Love, I found a lot of the rose flavour to be missing. While for Admiration and Hug, the flavours were just a bit muddled and didn’t like the initial steep.

Left to right: Hero, Wisdom, and Trust.

My Overall Impression

I loved Adagio Teas’s Motherhood Teas collection. I think it comes well packaged, with adorable illustrations, and a nice collection of blends that allows moms to try something new and perhaps find a new favourite. Hug, Hero, and Trust were my top picks/favourites out the six – and if I had to pick an absolute favourite, it’d be Trust.

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Teakan’s Li Shan Oolong

Li Shan Oolong by Teakan
Oolong Tea / Straight
$25.00 for 70g

Li Shan Oolong is part of the Teakan’s Spring 2020 Exploration box, which I purchased at the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival back in March. This Exploration Box consists of 5 teas and Li Shan Oolong was 15g of the 70g.

First Impressions

Last week I shared my review of the first of five single origin teas from Teakan’s 2020 Spring Exploration Box – Jasmine White. You can find the photo of the outer packaging there as well. This review will be focusing on the second tea I picked out of the kit – Li Shan Oolong.

Li Shan Oolong is an oolong tea harvested in spring 2019 from Li Shan, Nantou, Taiwan and I got 15g of it in the Exploration Box. I love the minimalist vibes from the kraft paper pouch, which is sealed and resealable. The back of the packaging has steeping instructions (more on that later).

This Taiwanese oolong has some beautiful leaves. I love all the variation in colours from warm browns to bright greens to very dark, forest greens. They’re just really fun to look at. The aroma is lightly fruity, it reminds me a lot of peaches.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Li Shan Oolong in 95°C (203°F) water. I opted to use 93°C (200F°) water. For western style steeping, this oolong is meant to be steeped for 1 minute, 30 seconds (90 seconds). With the gongfu method, its 5 seconds. I did the 90 second steep in my teapot.

First Taste

Li Shan Oolong steeps to a light golden yellow for the initial steep. There’s some floral aroma to the tea – with some sweet, honeyed notes in the fragrance as well. The flavour of the tea is a mix of stone fruit (I definitely taste more apricot that I can smell), honey, and floral notes. It’s nicely balanced. I found that the tea was smooth with only a slightly thickened texture to it. It’s a pleasant mouthfeel and was so easy to drink up the whole pot.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Li Shan Oolong six times (seven steeps total), adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The flavour and colour were strongest in the first and second resteeps. While the flavour and colour weakened by the last steep, the flavour remains consistent and didn’t change too much for it. It was a treat to watch how much the leaves opened up as I steeped this oolong.

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Li Shan Oolong. I’m a sucker for a good quality oolong, and this one does not disappoint. I loved everything from admiring the dry leaf, steeping (and resteeping) and drinking the tea, to looking at the spent leaves after everything was all said and done. I really enjoyed the flavour of this oolong, and I think a lot of people would like it as well – especially if you have an appreciation for teas with floral notes.

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Sun-Rype’s Black Tea Twist of Lemon

Black Tea Twist of Lemon by Sun-Rype
Black Tea / Flavoured
$1.69 for 1 can (355ml)

First Impressions

Another day, another canned tea product review! You may as well find out what I think about these products before you decide to purchase them to have while enjoying a leisurely trip to your patio or backyard, right?

This is Sun-Rype’s Black Tea Twist of Lemon. As one might suspect, it’s a black tea base with lemon added to it – added bonus of carbonated water for a ‘sparkling’ bubbly taste. It’s a tall skinny can – I’m beginning to think that canned tea products are being produced in these cans so they aren’t as easily mistaken to be soft drinks (side note, do you say pop or soda were you live? It’s pop for me!) since the perceived health benefits of not drinking soft drinks or canned drink products laden with sugar is always on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds.

The can is differently coloured from the other flavours to make it easier to recognize, which is nice. The tea itself is a golden orange colour, obviously carbonated with all of the visible tiny bubbles and the fizz that I could hear as soon as I cracked open the can. There is a nice lemon aroma to it, and I can small the malty black tea base. Black Tea Twist of Lemon consists of: carbonated filtered water, cane sugar, real brewed black tea concentrate, citric acid, natural flavour, and natural colour.

First Taste

The aroma of Black Tea Twist of Lemon is pleasant – it does remind me of the classic combination of lemon with black tea. It’s not as sweet as I would have liked, especially for a product that contains cane sugar. I can taste the black tea base – it has a nice robustness to it that reminds me of a breakfast tea. There’s a nice amount of lemon flavour to it, but I find it a bit tart. I do taste a bit of mineral quality to it, which I think comes from the carbonated water.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Sun-Rype’s Black Tea Twist of Lemon was just okay. I could appreciate the flavour of lemon with the black tea but it wasn’t sweet enough for me and I found the mineral quality in the carbonated water to be a bit off-putting. I think this would be great cut with some lemonade. I would definitely recommend pouring this over a cup of ice, perhaps adding a lemon wedge to it. It’d be a great drink to have while sitting out in the shade on a hot day, just enjoying the summer weather.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.